Mark Dembitz is the APAC General Manager for Lark, an all-in-one, mobile-first super-app for work that helps companies of all sizes and industries accelerate communication, increase employee engagement, and maximize growth.

Lark was created by Bytedance for its own use before being commercialized and sold to third parties. Lark is gaining substantial traction with technology companies and frontline-heavy industries (F&B, retail, etc.) in Southeast Asia and beyond.

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👋🏼  How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

I lead a team responsible for all client-facing activities: this includes making sure the right people know about us and our product (marketing), buy our product (sales and solutioning), and that our customers use our product in depth and are well taken care of once a purchase has been made  (customer success management).

As a General Manager, my job is to set strategy, goals, and culture, and then make sure my team has the right mix of people and skills to achieve our goals.

I like to think of my role as the coach of a rowing team: making sure that each rower (i.e. the head of each function) works together fully in sync, which is the best way to move the boat forward as fast as possible.

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🧐  What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I speak 5 languages and have traveled to over 90 countries. If I could, I'd happily spend all my time traveling, meeting people, eating new foods, and learning about the world.

I used to fence very competitively and tried making the Olympics. I didn't. That was the first of many failures that I learned from!

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🏆  What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

Joining Bytedance as a Westerner, witnessing the amazing culture and drive at the company, and contributing to the growth of the business by leading Larks' business in Asia.

I'm extremely privileged, as a non-Chinese, to be in a position to popularize the Bytedance management philosophy, which is distilled into the product Lark sells: a hyper-efficient, mobile-first all-in-one collaboration platform that saves entrepreneurs, leaders, and their staff a lot of time and helps everyone substantially accelerate growth.

Getting the opportunity to share the Bytedance way with so many companies and leaders and seeing this help them grow and transform their businesses is an unparalleled honor and I am extremely proud of the success we are having.

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🔍  What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?

I am paying very close attention to the F&B space this year. While not a traditional "start-up" space, there are a lot of very interesting developments with many F&B chains and franchises entering Southeast Asia and changing the landscape.

I watch this closely because F&B and other frontline-heavy businesses (retail, hospitality, logistics, etc) employ over 50% of the Southeast Asian workforce, yet there is massive churn amongst frontline employees. This costs businesses up to $22B a year, money that could be much better invested elsewhere.

Lark's mission is to provide cutting-edge collaboration tools to the frontlines, increase their engagement, and bring the SaaS-driven productivity and experiences, that have helped many white-collar workers to the larger population. In short, really changing the lives of most workers through technology. 

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💼  What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry? 

Get familiar with your product. Only by knowing exactly what you sell and what customer pain points you are solving can you be efficient. Second, be customer-obsessed. All the time.

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🗣  What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours? 

Many things. Fencing (the sport) is one. Productivity is another. Traveling and learning about new cultures and languages is a third.

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🎥  What's your favorite movie/TV show? 

Movie: The Shawshank Redemption. TV show: Lupin & Drops of God.

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🍨  What's your go-to ice cream flavor?

Dark chocolate sorbet from Berthillon in Paris. It's chocolate (I am Swiss!) but it's not creamy... it's a sorbet. Amazingly refreshing and tasty. There's nothing like it in the world.